This interview with Terry Gross on her NPR show Fresh Air was recorded in July 2015, right after the book Between the World and Me was published. In this discussion, Coates discusses many topics discussed in the book and the excerpt we are reading, “Letter to My Son”: his close friend Prince who was killed by the police, the complicated politics and risks of walking down the street as a kid in Baltimore, and an incident in which he was arrested for threatening a teacher while in high school and why he did it.

We won’t have time to listen to the full interview in class (though I hope to get at least to 20 min.!) but you can listen to the whole length on your own:

This essay, which appeared in The Atlantic in July 2015, is an excerpt from Coates’ book Between the World and Me, which went on to win many well deserved awards for the quality of its writing and the necessity of its subject. In our class, we will read this closely over two class sessions, and consider it in context of events that have happened since its writing and in context with other interviews and topices we have considered..

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This combined ENG92W and ENG 1101 course aims to simplify the process of translating ideas and thoughts from your brain to the page. Through critical readings, analysis of visual materials, research, and self-exploration, you will gain basic writing tools and gain confidence in recognizing your unique ideas and develop methods to convey them. This class is a First Year Learning Community. (Header Image: “Brain Page 368” by Sue Clark; taken from “The Home and School Reference Work, Volume I” 1917. Public Domain/Flickr Creative Commons.)

The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at New York City College of Technology (NYCCT), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.

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The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at New York City College of Technology (NYCCT), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.